Saturday, October 24, 2009

One day long ago in my college English class, my professor, Cal Huenneman, remarked that any time he saw weather like that day, he had the immediate rush of the lines of a poem, October's Bright Blue Weather, by Helen Hunt Jackson. Then, in typical college professor style, he quoted the poem from memory, his head thrown back and his eyes shut... smiling. I was a junior then, in 1974.... and I'd never heard the poem, the phrase, .... never felt the rush of a poem through my heart as I looked at something. Now I often get those rushes although I teach high school so I refrain from the quote thing... (eyes would roll SO bad we'd probably need the 911 Opthamologist)... But here goes...

Mom and took a drive from New Cambria north to Kirksville through the countryside... Our eyes were blessed.... O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;
When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather
Helen Hunt Jackson

4 comments:

Cheryl ~ Casual Cottage Chic said...

Came across your blog and loved the pictures of the landscape. Didn't see a profile so I will ask...do you live in Missouri? My mother grew up in Kirksville and we have a friend whose son is going to med school in Kirksville, MO.

Cheers and to good (better) health this fall/winter!

Becky K. said...

Very pretty. All of it!

We are experiencing thunderstorms and wind...as a cold front passes through.

Lisa Pogue said...

Loved it!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Gayla! Loved the poem - I printed it out so we could read it through the rest of October. We have already memorized "When the Frost is on the Pumpkin." I love fall poetry!!

Wish you were coming to St. Joe for the softball tournament!

Love, Kathy Weeks